AFTERMATH 



329 



the narrow road through the hollow. In 

 the dry fields and along the road the 

 various Thistles showed belated pom- 

 pons, and Climbing Bittersweet or Wax- 

 work looped its berry -laden branches over 

 the walls, or else, fallen in a heap, chari- 

 tably covered a mass of dingy weeds 

 with an orange and red mantle. 



In the strip of swamp that held the 

 backwater of the river, and from which 

 it was divided by a copse of gray -limbed 

 Maples, the Cat -tail Flags still held 

 their batons, no longer stiff and brown, 

 but frayed and limp, above the beds of 

 decaying leaves. This is one of the 

 marshes where the little peeping frogs 

 announce the coming of Spring. Now 

 the place was noiseless, the absence of 



